I was first introduced to Thomas Jackson's work in 2014 when he showed at the Center for Photography at Woodstock . His work was featured in the "Photography NOW 2014" exhibition juried by Julie Grahame, publisher of aCurator.com. It was pretty much love at first site.

In his series Emergent Behavior, Jackson references "self-organizing 'emergent' systems in nature." (termite mounds, swarming locusts, etc.) But these are no ordinary swarms. Jackson creates site specific installations out of man made materials (predominantly plastic) and photographs them set against serene landscapes(using a 4x5 film camera!). The compositions are alluring, musical and even mesmerizing. Plastic take away trays are sublimely illuminated by the orange glow of the setting sun, and when the sun is gone, strands of glow sticks form a luminous stream of color beneath the twilight sky.

Jackson's emergent systems of plastic trays, plates, balloons and even tutus are a colorful and clever juxtaposition of the natural world and the synthetic products humans put in it. While these formations hover and dance playfully above landscapes mostly devoid of people, they probe into the possibility that these man made materials might be more invasive than we created them to be.